Viacom Inc. struck a hopeful note on advertising for the rest of the year even as the media conglomerate controlled by Sumner Redstone saw second-quarter profit plunge on weak ad markets, video game sales and box-office returns.
Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said the company, which owns the BET and MTV cable TV networks, was “very pleased” with the nearly completed bidding in the so-called “upfronts,” in which media buyers bid on commercial time ahead of the coming TV season.
Advertisers no longer count on dramatic reductions in prices “as we see signs of recovery,” Dauman told analysts on a conference call.
Analysts remain wary, however. David Bank of RBC Capital Markets said Viacom’s comments on advertising were more bullish than he expected but might only be posturing as the bidding for ad time continues.
“I think the upfronts are in a really odd state of flux right now,” Bank said. “They’re going to turn out better than everyone thought three or four months ago, but no one knows exactly how these negotiations are going.”
New York-based Viacom declined to give specifics on the volume or pricing of ad time it has sold so far.
Viacom, which also owns the Paramount Pictures movie studio and the “Rock Band” video game franchise, said it earned $277 million, or 46 cents per share, in the most recent quarter, a 32 percent drop from $407 million, or 65 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding 3 cents per share in severance charges, adjusted earnings were 49 cents per share. On that basis, earnings beat analyst expectations by a penny per share, according to a Thomson Reuters survey.
Revenue slipped 14 percent to $3.3 billion, missing analysts’ estimate of $3.5 billion.
Revenue at the company’s media networks segment, which includes BET and MTV Networks and the “Rock Band” games published by MTV Games, slid…